FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department is condemning a Biden-appointed federal judge’s ruling barring the Trump administration from using the president’s latest travel ban to deny visas to foreigners from certain countries. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a 2024 appointee of then-President Joe Biden, ruled Thursday that the State Department cannot rely on the 19-country ban to refuse to process applications for winners of the Diversity Visa lottery who would lose their visas if not issued by the end of September. “Another example of wrongful judicial overreach aimed at curtailing this Administration’s strong and unwavering efforts to keep Americans and our communities safe,” Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesman for the State Department, told The Daily Signal. Sooknanan’s ruling still allows immigration authorities to deny the foreign citizens entry to the U.S. by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials in those countries to refuse to board them. “We will continue to relentlessly work to ensure the president of the United States is able to use every tool he has available, including visas, to finally bring oversight to who we allow to visit our country,” Piggot said. The travel ban fully restricts people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States. It also partially restricts U.S. entry for citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. The Trump administration’s lawyers asked Sooknanan to accept the “long-standing practice” of the State Department refusing visas to people whose entry would be blocked by a presidential order. In response, the judge cited a Supreme Court decision from last summer that limited the power of agencies to rely on their own interpretations of the law. This is the latest example of federal judges blocking the president’s agenda. Judges have blocked Trump’s orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion; releasing the Epstein files; defunding Planned Parenthood; ending birthright citizenship; and more. The post State Dept. Blasts Ruling Against Using Travel Ban for Visa Denials as ‘Judicial Overreach’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump has pledged to “make D.C. safe again,” with a federal intervention to stop crime in the nation’s capital. To emphasize the point, Trump is doing a ride along with law enforcement around Washington Thursday night. “I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said to radio host Todd Starnes, noting that he hoped that by focusing on crime in the district. he would trigger more cities to follow his lead. Trump’s actions could mark a real turnaround for Washington and many other big cities in the United States plagued by crime and disorder. The Left is livid. The media is having its usual mental breakdown over Trump’s actions, portraying the move to clean up the nation’s capital as authoritarian, a prelude to fascism (which is always just around the corner in America but always seems to land in Europe). The legacy media and left-wing Democrats should be worried, but not over their phantom concerns about tyranny. They should be worried about the likely success of Trump’s policies, which appear to be having an immediate, positive impact on stopping crime in D.C. The city just had a full week without a murder, which is unusual in the high-crime summer months. And other crimes seem to have momentarily decreased too. ? BREAKING: Stunning new data was just released showing that after President Trump’s Washington DC takeover, carjackings plummet by 83%, robbery by 46%, violent crime by 22% and car theft by 21%.In 7 days. Democrats said this was impossible and DC had no crime issues – they… pic.twitter.com/HOzbGppgad— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 19, 2025 I think the federal takeover of Washington could be a prelude to something much bigger. In a sense, the district crime issue is like the border problem. For years we were told that the historic crisis at the border that began nearly the day Joe Biden became president, was unresolvable. It was a product of obscure “root causes” that never seemed to be rooted out. Then, suddenly and mysteriously, the problem was not only alleviated the moment Trump returned to the White House, but we also witnessed border crossing numbers hit historically low levels. Again, this happened almost instantly. What the American people saw was that the crisis was a choice. The whole time we could have stopped the rampant violation of our laws. The only thing that changed is that an administration was willing to enforce those laws and made its intent to do so crystal clear. We have a similar choice about crime and chaos in our big cities. The crime that they suffer is not just part of the reality of urban living. That’s the lie the Left wants you to believe so they are never held accountable for their terrible policies. Washington, D.C., is exactly the kind of left-wing city that chose its dysfunction. It’s done so while obnoxiously demanding that we should give the city even more power nationally by making it a state. This despite the fact that it’s demonstrated quite clearly that it struggles to govern itself. In 2023 Congress had to intervene to stop the city from loosening penalties for people who’ve committed carjackings while the city was going through a carjacking crisis. Even the Biden administration knew that was a bit of a problem and signed off on the congressional override. And even though the massive crime spike that began after the George Floyd riots in 2020 is subsiding in Washington and elsewhere, the nation’s capital is hardly a “safe city.” Though, you would think it’s practically a utopia given how many on the Left have been talking about it in recent days. But touting Washington’s possibly cooked crime stats as an indication that all is hunky dory in the nation’s capital is a bit like saying that Mordor is nice now that Mount Doom is only percolating hot magma and sulfurous fumes in the air instead of erupting. The District of Columbia had a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 people in 2024. This is supposed to be great news for the city since it had been at a staggering 39.4 in 2023. But going from the seventh circle of hell to the fourth circle of hell isn’t much to celebrate. For comparison, New York City, at the closest it’s ever been to a real life “Escape From New York,” reached 31 homicides per 100,000 people in 1990. So, the district is as “good” now as New York was at its worst, when it was still inspiring movies and popular media focused on its crime problem. But here’s the actual good news. New York proved that cleaning up a crime-ridden city was quite doable with a significant change in policies. Mayor Rudy Guiliani ushered in a crime fighting revolution by focusing on order, arresting criminals, and prosecuting them (something the district’s leaders say doesn’t work). Graffiti was cleaned up, homeless people were moved off the street and into shelters, panhandlers and prostitutes were aggressively removed from Times Square, the squeegee men were banished to the nether realm. The result was that by the early 2000s, New York of all places was one of the safest big cities in the country. It has since backslid from those halcyon days, and may soon descend much further, but the template is there for how to tackle the crime issue. Washington, D.C., doesn’t have to be a crime-ridden nightmare. It doesn’t have to be a place where you just hope you get lucky and avoid being victimized. The disorder and crime in the district have been the product of many bad choices. Those choices were made by the leftists who run the city council, the mayor, the police chief, the courts, and all the powers that be in Washington. No longer. There may finally be something resembling justice and a lot more safety in the nation’s capital. The post Trump’s Aim to ‘Make DC Safe Again’ Sends Message to Democrat-Run Cities appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The rapper best known for the viral megahit song "Old Town Road" was arrested and hospitalized after he was recorded dancing through Los Angeles in his underwear at night.A witness saw a man appearing to be Lil Nas X walking nearly naked and began recording him from their car. The video was obtained by TMZ and published online.'Gimme that phone so I can throw it! I'm gonna throw it far away so you never see it again!' The rapper, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, allegedly charged at police who were responding to calls of a nude man walking in public in the San Fernando Valley. Police suspected the man was overdosing and requested the aid of firefighter-paramedics.Police sources told KNBC-TV that Hill also threw some punches at police during the altercation. He was hospitalized and is expected to be booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery on a police officer.The TMZ video shows the man identified as Hill laughing and dancing while clad only in underwear and cowboy boots. At one point, he puts an orange traffic cone over his head."It's gonna be a beautiful sunrise!" he says at one point before reaching out for the cell phone."Gimme that phone so I can throw it!" the man says. "I'm gonna throw it far away so you never see it again!"RELATED: Artist collective that created Satanic Lil Nas X sneakers are selling 'eat the rich' popsicles for $10 each At other points he snaps his fingers, sings, laughs, and makes shooting gestures."Don't miss your party tonight. Why are you still here?" he adds.Hill became incredibly popular with the success of "Old Town Road," but many of his fans turned on him after the openly gay performer dropped a video for another song that featured him giving a lascivious lap dance to Satan in hell.He also sold stylized sneakers with satanic themes, including a drop of human blood.TMZ said the rapper's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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French archaeologists have uncovered horrifying evidence of Stone Age brutality in northeastern France, where 82 tortured and mutilated skeletons reveal one of the earliest documented examples of victory celebrations following prehistoric warfare. The gruesome discovery, dating between 4300 and 4150 BC, shows that captured enemies were systematically tortured, their left arms severed as trophies, and their bodies displayed as warnings before being buried in mass pits. The chilling findings, published in Science Advances, provide unprecedented insight into the violent nature of Neolithic warfare and the ritualized brutality that followed military victories. Researchers believe the victims were invaders from the Paris region who were captured during raids into northeastern France, then subjected to prolonged torture as part of community-wide celebrations of triumph. "We believe they were brutalized in the context of rituals of triumph or celebrations of victory that followed one or several battles," explained Dr. Teresa Fernández-Crespo, an osteoarchaeologist at Valladolid University in Spain who led the analysis. The evidence suggests these were not quick battlefield deaths, but deliberate acts of prolonged violence designed to dehumanize captives before the entire community. Read moreSection: NewsHistory & ArchaeologyAncient PlacesEuropeHistoryAncient TraditionsRead Later 

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Vice President JD Vance slammed a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will benefit the highest earners and hurt lower-wage Americans.